Sorin Gog

The Europeanisation of
Eastern Christianity:
Secularisation in Post-socialist
Romania and Bulgaria

The thesis of my research project is that
in spite of the disappearance of the communist
regime and its secular policy, post-socialism in
Romania and Bulgaria did not entail a religious
revival but a new logic of secularization. A logic
that manifests itself especially among the young
generation that was socialized in a new postsocialist
lifeworld. The secularization process in
both countries contains the de-Christianization of
a religious worldview, the de-institutionalization
of religious experience and most of all a de-moralization
of the practical sphere of life. These three
features are the by-product of modernization and
europeanisation which leads to a pluralization
of lifeworlds and in doing so to the erosion of
traditional religious mentalities.